Hiccup's Tale
by spamtrap
Summary: The story of the dragon, as recalled by Hiccup.
1. Chapter 1

Hiccup And The Dragon

Once a year, Hiccup told the story of how he caught a Night Fury. The small group of family and friends waited as they sat around the fire, just after sunset on this cool Autumn evening. Most of the time, the weather in Berk is not too bad, at least for Vikings, although you'd never know that if you heard how much the residents exaggerate.

On this night, a black dragon named Toothless was lying between two of the children, fast asleep, with one paw resting on a hot ember in the fire. The kids smiled as their dad arrived to take his place among them, in anticipation of the story. The dragon looked perfectly content to continue his nap. Hiccup began the tale.

"This happened many years before you were born. It was a time of chilling darkness and piercing flame. We were at war with dragons. Most any night, they would come, to kill us and take our livestock. And the bravest warriors would battle the monsters. When everyone was asleep, a mass of dragons would suddenly appear in the dark, with fire and claw and fangs, to grab -"

"Please, Hiccup," said Astrid, "Tone it down. They'll have nightmares."

"Okay" replied Hiccup. "Well, anyway, even as a teenager, I was real little. Sure, I still am. But, I was... little-er. I'm an inventor, and I built stuff in the blacksmith shop, so that I could kill a dragon. Brains over brawn. And I wanted most of all to kill the biggest trophy, the Night Fury. Long ago, on this very night, I brought one down."

Hiccup glanced at the dragon in their midst. Toothless was fast asleep, completely uninterested in the story.

"I used my Mangler, which launched rock and rope at high speed to snare a dragon. On that night, the whole village was occupied with the battle, and I set up near a catapult. That's what a Night Fury would usually attack. It was perfect timing, since one of them was making a dive-bomb pass at that moment. I aimed quick, closed my eyes, pulled the trigger. The whistling of the flying rope gave way to a heart-wrenching scream, echoing through the mountains. Night Fury was hit! He was like a falling star still glowing from his fire blast, and tumbling end-over end, toward Raven Point.

I could hardly wait to get out there. I hiked all morning to the spot, and finally arrived near the lip of a canyon. The dragon was lying all tied up, but he was still alive – and staring right at me. All I had was my little filet knife, and he was so helpless and miserable, I didn't have the heart to kill him anyway. I was feeling kind of sick over the whole thing. I'd be a hero in the village – this kill would a great victory for me – and the only thing I felt was – remorse. I only wished I could go back in time and undo everything.

I started to cut him loose, while checking over my shoulder to be sure nobody was watching me do so. I had no plan on what to do once I freed him, but the dragon was calculating his options the whole time. I'd only sliced a couple of ropes when he leaped up and pinned me by the neck to a large rock. He glared, then roared at me so loudly, my ears were ringing. Then he leaped into the canyon in a rage, and disappeared. I was completely unharmed!

The following day, I was placed into dragon training. My boss, the blacksmith Gobber the Belch was the teacher. I failed so badly that day, I nearly got burned to a crisp by the slowest dragon ever, a gronkle.

Still, there was a question that haunted me: Why didn't the Night Fury kill me?

And I had to go see if he was alright. So I went all the way back there again, and this time I was able to draw a picture of him. See? This is the picture I drew. I was a pretty good artist back then, huh?

But he was injured. Part of a tail fin was missing, and he wasn't able to fly up the steep rock walls of the canyon. He stared at me again, and this time, his eyes seemed almost... gentle. I didn't know what to do, but I also didn't want him to starve. So I secretly saved a fish for the dragon. And I brought it into the canyon, hoping to find him.

And you're not gonna believe what happened next.

I crept between the large boulders that morning, to the canyon floor, bringing my shield in case I confronted an injured, angry fire-breathing dragon. I threw the fish into the clearing. And my shield got stuck in the rocks. I pressed on anyway, out in the open, protected only by a slightly rotten fish.

From out of nowhere I was confronted by the black dragon – this was becoming a regular occurrence! And he demanded that I disarm. Not in human words, but I still knew what he meant. Maybe I've always understood him. Now knife-less and shield-less, I was briefly relieved to see he was "toothless". He grinned a smile of gums, then his retractable teeth snapped into place, and he bit my fish in half, swallowing it all. Before I knew it, he'd backed me up to a rock, and we were face-to-face again. Then he spit half of his fish into my lap, and politely asked me share his snack. Not wanting to offend a huge, wild dragon, I took one bite of the raw fish half, could barely keep it down, but smiled as if I were full – as if it was the finest banquet I had ever eaten – hoping I could now be permitted to leave.

And he smiled back. A broad grin, maybe a little more sincere than my own, but with no teeth. I reached out – could I pet him? Nope. He growled and leaped to the other side of the pond. When he seemed to be napping, I snuck over to check out that tail with the missing fin, but as soon as I got close, he walked away in a huff.

I had a problem. How do I tell a dragon that I nearly killed, "I'm not your enemy, let me help you"? Never mind the fact that he'll starve even if I bring him as much fish as I can carry every day. And that he'll probably be found and killed before he has a chance to starve.

...And that I had no idea how to help him...

With the memory of his smiling face, I started vaguely drawing his head, using a stick in the soft sand on the shore of the lake. Now I was the miserable creature, with no idea what to do. And he was suddenly sitting right next to me, watching me draw! The next thing I knew, this dragon had broken a tree, was holding it in his teeth and carefully drawing a huge picture of his own, all around me. It looked like this. See? It's a lot of loops and lines. That's pretty good art considering it was his first drawing. And boy was he proud of it! He growled so angrily when I stepped on a line, I thought he'd burn me alive. We were both relieved when I realized the idea was to avoid the lines. I practically danced out of his "maze", so happy that he was trying to reach out to me. Not paying attention, I backed right into the seated dragon. I could hear his heartbeat and feel his warm breath. I reached up to touch his head, but now all I wanted to do was somehow show him "I'm sorry". He growled, but not very convincingly.

So I reached up again - turned my head away, closed my eyes, and stretched out my arm to him. It would be fair if he bit my arm off. It would serve me right. It was time for him to decide now if I was still his enemy. I cringed and waited for what seemed like an eternity, for the bite to happen. This would hurt. Then something warm touched my hand and my knees buckled. But there was no pain. I looked up to see the dragon had pressed his nose into the palm of my hand. And his eyes were closed.

The dragon shook his head and leaped back to the other side of the pond again. But I knew he'd called a truce. We were even, no hard feelings. He could die in peace. But I needed to figure out how to keep him alive.


	2. Chapter 2

I've Got A Tiger By The Tail

Hiccup placed a couple of logs on the fire, which now illuminated a few more people who had arrived to hear the story. Toothless grinned and rolled over onto his back, to allow the kids to scratch his tummy.

"Then my trainer said something that gave me an idea. During dinner after a long day, Gobber said "A downed dragon is a dead dragon", while waving his artificial hand. Wait a second. What if I make a tail fin for the dragon! I quickly snuck back to the shop, made some sketches, and started on that fin. I used parts of our dragon-killing equipment to build a collapsible leather fin which would strap securely to his tail. I worked all night, then grabbed a huge basket of fish, and began the long trek back to the cove. The basket weighed twice as much as me, I hadn't eaten since I don't know when, yet even with all the stuff I was lugging, I wasn't tired nor hungry when I arrived.

"I brought breakfast! Toothless' eyes lit up as he saw the feast. While he was preoccupied with the food, I was strapping the new fin on him, while sitting on his tail to keep it still. The contraption looked good, and I was thinking about what changes I should make. Next thing I knew I was in flight! The dragon was headed straight for a canyon wall, and I was holding the tail for dear life. On a whim, I grabbed the fake fin and fanned it open. And now we were flying straight up. As I controlled the fin, we flew wonderfully. But Toothless decided he didn't need my help anymore, and he flicked me into icy water. His fin collapsed, and he landed with a huge splash a few feet away. We both realized this adventure was gonna take some cooperation. Then it was back to the village for more dragon training. This morning the theme was "teamwork". No kidding, right?

Well, I brought a smelly old eel back with me to the ring. Toothless hates eels, and I thought, why not try it out on other dragons! Sure enough, I was able to cage the zippleback without lifting a finger. Before someone could ask any - uncomfortable - questions, I got outta there.

I made a saddle, and rigged a control system, so I could move the tail fin while riding on the dragon's back. This got us a crash-landing in a field. Turns out dragons are nuts about the lemon grass that grows along the shoreline. And after using that grass to "defeat" the gronkle in training that day, I was becoming a celebrity, for my new-found magical abilities. Which is the last thing I needed. I had to keep finding excuses to duck out and get back to the cove.

Every day, while working with Toothless, I learned more about dragons. What they like, how they think. I sometimes wonder who was training who. And what a coincidence it is that this Night Fury showed up on Berk when he did, the only guy in the region who knew it would take the cooperation of Vikings and dragons to rid us of our mutual enemy. And from the moment I shot Toothless down, the nightly attacks on the village stopped. As if he intended to be downed by the only Viking in Berk who could be trained. And he later took Astrid and I on a tour of the dragon nest, so we saw what we were fighting? Seems kinda fishy to me, Toothless, don't ya think? Just look at that big smile. Nah. He's not talking.

Well, anyway, after several more back-breaking baskets of fish, I had refined the harness. The angle and sweep of the fin was controlled using a foot pedal, with a chart for various flight angles and speeds. I was making that "cheat sheet" while Toothless was tethered to the ground, flying like a kite. Then one gust of wind broke the rope and we crashed upside-down. This bent the hook that held my safety harness to the saddle, now linking us together, and my tools were all in the blacksmith's shop. So, that night, I flew Toothless into the village. It's one advantage of having a stealth-dragon: nobody noticed our arrival. But while I was in the shop adjusting the harness, who do you think showed up? Astrid. She was maybe a little jealous that I was winning dragon battles. Maybe a lot jealous, very suspicious of what I was up to, and she was ready for a long talk. I was maybe a little nervous about being caught red-handed, with the dragon hiding in the shadows just inches away. But before I knew it, I was yanked into the saddle by a quick-thinking dragon, and in the blink of an eye, we were gone.

That morning, the warriors were back from another dragon expedition. They regularly hunted for The Nest, got badly beaten, and returned in worse shape than when they left. The dragons regularly invaded the village to grab sheep, and had many casualties themselves. It was an endless cycle. The Vikings were in a rut. I didn't want to be one of them. I didn't want to kill dragons.

I wanted to fly. Enough with being tied down. I flew Toothless along the shore for a long time, feeling the wind, trying to stay right-side up, things like that. I felt the beat of his huge wings. The pace of that and his breathing, set up a steady rhythm. It's like the sound of a pounding drum. There's music in a dragon's wing. I hear it every flight.

As we approached some tall rocks in the surf, I decided it was go time. I gave the cheat sheet a couple of quick tugs to check it for security, then we dove down to surf level, among the rocks. Okay, I flew us into a couple of cliffs. Sorry, Toothless! But once I began to figure things out, we went into a full-speed flight straight up to the sky. Until my cheat sheet flew past me. I grabbed it just in time, yelled "STOP!", and my nicely loosened tether hook became unhooked. So the two of us were a few feet apart falling rapidly, and neither of us could fly.

Toothless screamed. He shouted at the Gods, and at the ground, and at me. He ended up in a spin, and that new tail fin smacked me in the head. But we both quickly regained composure. I managed to get back in the saddle, with the trees fast approaching. I yelled "BRAKES!", but with the the cheat sheet between my teeth, it came out as a pathetic "mmph". Nevermind. Toothless had the same idea. He performed a very impressive braking job. But we still had lots of speed going on, and were heading right for more rocks. I had no time for my precious cheat sheet, so I threw away that crutch, and I've never needed any crutch since. Zipping between the maze of rocks, I had no trouble with split-second fin settings. Toothless and I had become a team."


	3. Chapter 3

Let's Talk About That Dragon

The large black dragon sat up next to the fire, and smiled, as the sun began to rise. This was the end of the story, and Toothless was getting ready to provide dragon rides for the kids.

"As far back as anyone can remember, Viking kids would grow up to talk, think, and fight like Vikings. Everyone was in an endless cycle... in a rut, including dragons. Until one teen came along who was... different. And he arrived with a different dragon, too.

You guys know Astrid, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Fishlegs, Snoutlout. They were pretty impressed at my new-found dragon defeating abilities. All except Astrid, who correctly assumed something fishy was going on. So when I won first place in the dragon training contest without even lifting a weapon, Astrid followed me to the cove and confronted me. I was wearing my riding harness, and she grabbed my collar and rubbed her fingers as if she'd found lipstick on it! In her frustration, she shoved me to the ground and whacked me with an axe handle. Next thing you know, a raging Night Fury was in her face, so it was up to me to prevent World War Dragon, and calm things down.

And then Astrid ran out of there. The dragon and I soon had her treed. I offered her a dragon ride down from the tall pine, which she eventually accepted, after which I supposed she'd then continue to the village, even angrier. But Toothless had other plans. Instead of landing, he took us on a wild ride around the island. And into about the twentieth barrel roll, Astrid apologized to me and Toothless! Immediately, Toothless shaped up and flew straight. I didn't know he could glide. He caught a thermal, and we soared far above the clouds to a beautiful blazing sunset. And Astrid smiled. I didn't know she could smile!

Toothless took us on an amazing island tour, with a perfect view of the Northern Lights, then swept silently above heads of villagers in the darkness. We sailed all night, and finally Astrid said something. "OK, that was pretty cool". For Astrid, that was high praise!

It was time to go home. But suddenly we were caught in a cloud of dragons. All of them, even Toothless, seemed to be hypnotized, directed to one spot. A remote island beyond a vast maze of rocks. Soon, we were inside the cave of a volcano. The cave was lined with dragons and eggs. Dragons were dropping captured animals into a huge pit. This was the dragon nest! And there was a monster in this nest.

It was a massive animal, ten times larger than any dragon, and very ancient. It seemed to have a grip on the dragons. They would do its bidding in exchange for protection in the volcano. And the giant would eat one or two dragons each night, just to keep everyone in line. The dragons had to kill Vikings, the Vikings had to kill dragons. An abusive "dragon leader" was causing the whole thing, like an addiction. We barely escaped when she saw us.

OK, all my life I had been a little, tiny bit... unfocused. So, back at the cove, Astrid's first thought was to go get help from my dad, Stoick. But something had happened during dragon training. I'd begun to become a leader. So when I asked Astrid to give me some time to work out the finer details of my plan (well, to start thinking of a plan), she allowed me to. You should have seen how surprised she looked once she realized I was taking some responsibility of my own!

The following day was the Final Test, in the ring, with my dad and the entire village watching. So there I was, holding my filet knife again, confronting a dragon. When the Monstrous Nightmare advanced, I threw down my knife and helmet. Since Vikings had only one goal, "to kill dragons", and since I was kind of showing off, my dad had to stop the fight. He angrily hammered a railing and shouted, and suddenly I was evading an enraged Nightmare. At about the point where I was pinned to the ground by a dragon claw, Toothless appeared out of nowhere! He blasted his way into the ring, soon ran off the Nightmare, and stood beside me to challenge anyone else. Gobber shouted "Night Fury!". Ask him about that sometime... he has many cool stories that he never told us.

My dad jumped into the ring holding an axe. Toothless was upon him in an instant, pinning him down, as he had with me when we first met. And he was about to deliver a kill shot. Two enemies at each others' throats. This was pretty bad, because although I convinced Toothless and my dad to stop, I wouldn't be there every time this kind of thing happened. The other Vikings subdued my dragon, muzzled and chained him. My dad was rightfully furious with me, and we still weren't communicating. I shouted that he never listens, he disowned me... we were both still using that cherished Viking tradition of overdoing things. And I accidentally mentioned that I'd found the dragon nest. And that only a dragon can find it. So he was off to use Toothless as a homing device.

The entire village loaded up for war, and sailed to the volcano. I stood at the dock, staring at the horizon long after the harbor had become vacant. Fortunately, Astrid arrived. She mentioned how any Viking would have killed the Night Fury and asked me, "So, why didn't you?"... the same question I had been pondering about Toothless. The question Astrid already knew the answer to. But she allowed me the chance to figure it out. I wouldn't kill him, because when I saw the dragon, I saw myself. And so it was with Toothless. That's why he didn't kill me. Now the dragon and I were best friends, and I'd lost him forever. And the whole village was doomed, as well. So when I started staring at nothing again, Astrid asked, "So what are you gonna do?" And I realized, there is something I can do! So we gathered the teens at the dragon ring, and gave each a crash course in dragon riding.

In the meantime, the Vikings had arrived on Dragon Island. In his enthusiasm, my dad ran his ship aground... kind of admitting that at least he didn't expect to leave. They broke the volcano cave open, setting the dragons free. They all flew off without a fight. All except for that Green Death monster, who remained and used her new-found freedom to battle the Vikings once and for all. The Green Death first torched all of the ships, then went after the stranded Vikings. It was a very one-sided battle.

Then our group showed up. Astrid on her Nadder, Ruff & Tuff on the Zippleback, Fishlegs on the Gronkle, Snoutout on the Nightmare. They each tried some of the dragon tactics I had learned, but none of them were effective. I went to free Toothless, and with one stomp, the Green Death had sunk that boat. Both the chained Toothless and I went to the bottom of the bay. Before I knew it, my dad pulled me from the water. Then he dived in and freed Toothless, who immediately jumped up and seemed very anxious to deliver some payback to the Green Death. My dad and I each gave the other a sincere apology, the first time in our lives we had ever really talked. We knew we were telling each other goodbye. And in an instant, the dragon and I were in flight.

I can't kill a dragon. I won't. Not even the Green Death, whatever it is. She had been set free for the first time in eons, so I hoped she'd use that freedom to go find new hunting grounds. We tried several dragon tricks, and none of them worked on this non-dragon "dragon" monster. So my next idea was to just wear her out, and maybe she'd give up and leave... and we'd distract her from the Vikings below. We flew around the island, followed closely by the Green Death who was bashing rock pillars to dust. Next we flew to the clouds... maybe she'll give up now? Nope. We tried some sniper attacks, firing at her wings. This caused little damage, but I hoped it would sting enough to get her to leave, before Toothless ran out of shots. But Green Death held her ground. Next, she filled the sky with flame. Green Death had no shot limit as other dragons do. Toothless' artificial tail fin caught fire, and I couldn't control it anymore. So I lied, "Don't worry Toothless, we're good!", as we flew the only remaining direction possible... straight down. I pretended that was the plan, flying to the ground.

Toothless had one shot left. I heard the Green Death prepare for a fireball. Inches from us, she opened here mouth for the kill shot, and Toothless flipped around and fired! This ignited the gas inside the Green Death. She worked to put out the fire as she accelerated past us toward the volcano. And she opened here wings. Those tiny fire holes in her wings, combined with flammable gas, were fanned to large holes, preventing her from slowing, and she hit the ground in a mighty explosion.

We were kind of flipping around out of control, and didn't quite get away from the Green Death's tail. I was knocked unconscious and knocked away from my dragon, who flew straight down to catch me, wrapping his wings around me to protect me from the inferno. With no brakes, we crashed to the rocks.

My dad found Toothless with a broken harness, and didn't find me. He apologized to the dragon. I think Toothless wouldn't have given me up if my dad blamed him. But my dad had changed. At that moment, I think both my dad and the dragon thought I was dead. By some miracle, although my leg was severely mangled, I was alive. Toothless unwrapped his wings, and there I was, held securely by a life-saving friend.

I awoke in my bed. Nobody can say how long I was out. I dreamt losing my leg, and that Toothless was in my house. One day my fever broke and I woke up, and realization set in. I had an artificial leg. It was tough to complain when a sympathetic dragon was right there in the room... the dragon who had lost a fin at my hand. So I stood up, and was helped to the door. Me with my missing leg, he with his missing fin. Together we can do anything.

We went outside on this clear sunny day, and everyone was practicing riding a dragon. Dragons and Vikings were everywhere in the village. Toothless was presented with a new harness and tail fin. He was eager to go flying again. Me, too.

Okay, so who wants to fly!"


End file.
